Sunday, April 26, 2009

IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community

IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community_______________________________________________________________

UPDATE - BAHRAIN

24 April 2009

More websites and blogs blocked by authorities

SOURCE: Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Manama

(BCHR/IFEX) - The Bahraini authorities have widened their campaign againstall Internet outlets, inside and outside Bahrain, which covers all aspectsof public affairs in the country. The lastest victims of the site-blockingcampaign, led by Mai Al-Khalifa, the Minister of Culture and Information,are http://www.aafaq.org , a Washington-based news site, andhttp://www.Bahrain-eve.blogspot.com , the blog of female activist GhadaJamsheer. The authorities have also blocked the alerts sitehttp://www.bahrainblogs.org that lists reports about any posting or updatesmade by bloggers in Bahrain and includes alerts from the BCHR site:http://www.bahrainrights.org . All sites were blocked on the morning of 21April 2009.

The Aafaq site is a webpage of news, views and reports covering manycountries. It is managed by an independent US-based owner and focuses onpolitical and other developments in Bahrain and the Arab region.Bahrain-eve, on the other hand, is a personal blog owned by Jamsheer, whois well-known for her views on women and other human rights issues.

The campaign is managed by a special branch reporting directly to theminister, who explicitly stated in her resolution that the decision toimpose or lift a block on a particular site is under her discretion. Thiscontradicts the cause of the campaign which is said to focus onpornography-related sites. Since its launch on January, the attack onInternet sites has included personal blogs, public forums, NGOs' and humanrights webpages, political, religious, cultural, and other sites whichreflect dissident views, news and reports on public issues.

As per a report by a project launched by the Berkman Center for Internetand Society at Harvard University, up to this moment there are "598 reportsof inaccessible sites in Bahrain, 159 of which are unique". The enormity ofthe figure is a result of the spectrum of sites blocked based on certaintags and keywords which include the word "proxy", something which usershave used to bypass the block.

Nabeel Rajab, president of BCHR, responded to this latest move: "One cansee that the State is going hysterical and (is not acting rationally) inthe way it is treating dissident views and issues of relation to publicaffairs". He added: "They want to control every in and out byte ofinformation. We all know this is impossible and the state advisors shouldvoice that this is a lost war against freedom of expression and exchange ofinformation in the high tech world we are living in".

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Send appeals to authorities asking them to:- lift the ban and blockage on the Aafaq news site and the Bahrain-eveblog, as well as all public affairs sites- put an end to the campaign against all forms of freedom of expression andlift the ban on dissident voices on the web- repeal all administrative resolutions targeting web accessibility andrestricting freedom of expression, and constrain the Minister ofInformation's involvement in media censorship- amend the Press Code of 2002, ensuring its conformity to internationalconventions